Known broadcast systems have the capability to provide supplemental information accompanying the broadcast signal, wherein such supplemental information typically contains information related to the program being broadcast. One example of accompanying supplemental information is program type information which classifies broadcast programs into program type categories. Program types may be classified, depending upon the particular broadcast system, into broad categories such as Country, Jazz, News, Nostalgia, Sports, Rock, and the like, and may further be classified into finer categories via program type names; for example a Nostalgia type program may be further classified into 50's, 60's, 70's, Big Band, and the like.
Currently, several known broadcast standards define broadcast systems including accompanying supplemental information. One example is the EN50067 Specification of the radio data system (RDS), CENELEC, April 1992, which classifies radio programs into 31 program types. Other examples include the Specification of the radio broadcast data system (RBDS), National Radio Systems Committee, Jan. 8, 1993, and the ETS-300401 Radio Broadcasting System; Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) to Mobile, Portable, and Fixed Receivers, European Telecommunications Standard, June 1996.
Implementations of program type features are known to exist in RDS and DAB receiving systems. Such features allow the operator to select a program type from a list of program types, and then search the selected broadcast band for broadcast signals matching the selected program type. However, such known implementations suffer from several drawbacks associated therewith. For example, one disadvantage of known program type implementations is that the program type selection list is quite long, and a control knob or button is provided to allow the user to scroll through the list. This requires the operator to spend a significant amount of time viewing the receiver display and, in the case of on-board vehicle systems, correspondingly diverts the vehicle operator's attention from operation of the vehicle, thereby putting the operator and other vehicle operators sharing the road at risk.
Another disadvantage of known program type implementations is that when the operator selects a program type and searches the selected broadcast band for broadcast signals matching the selected program type, there is no guarantee that a broadcast signal matching the selected program type exists within the signal receiving area of the receiving system. This problem increases with the number program type categories in that the more program types that are available for selection, the less likely that a broadcast signal exists in the area for the selected program type. In many cases, selection of a program type that is not available thus results in an empty search which serves to frustrate the operator, resulting in dissatisfaction of the program type feature. In such cases, the tuner search must be reinitiated if the user wishes to find an alternate station via the program type feature. While some known receiving systems permit the operator to store favorite program types, this feature does not improve the chance of a successful signal search.
What is therefore needed is a receiving system operable to provide the operator with selectable categories of broadcast signals that are available in a particular broadcast signal receiving area. Such a system should ideally provide the user with not only available broadcast signals, but should further categorize such available broadcast signals by program type. Moreover, such a system should be readily adaptable to broadcast television systems as well as to non-broadcast communication systems, including prerecorded media-based systems, which provide communication signals with accompanying supplemental information.